WEST SACRAMENTO -- Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Jonah Heim came off the bench with the Athletics down to their final out and slugged a game-tying two-run home run to right field.
No, this isn’t a recap of their wild extra-inning game against the Brewers last week at Las Vegas Ballpark, when Heim pinch-hit for Lawrence Butler and launched a dramatic homer to tie it. Thrust into nearly the exact same scenario Friday night at Sutter Health Park, Heim did it again.
With the A’s trailing by two with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Heim was summoned as a pinch-hitter for Colby Thomas and crushed a 99.2 mph sinker from Angels reliever Sam Bachman for a game-tying two-run blast over the right-field wall, sending the A’s dugout and everyone inside the ballpark into a frenzy.
Unlike last week, however, Heim’s heroics did not go for naught. The A’s came all the way back from what was an 11-4 deficit entering the bottom of the sixth to snatch an unlikely victory in the 10th inning, with Nick Kurtz’s walk-off walk completing a 12-11 win over the Halos.
Before Friday, the A’s last comeback win when trailing by seven or more runs was July 24, 2018, when they overcame an eight-run deficit against the Rangers in Texas. A’s manager Mark Kotsay was in the dugout for that one as a quality control coach. This time around, he was watching the late-inning dramatics unfold from a TV inside his office due to being ejected from the game in the bottom of the second inning after arguing balls and strikes.
“Nothing like watching it from your office for a while,” Kotsay said with a smile. “Remarkable. For a team to be down 11-4, come all the way back and win a game like that, that says a lot about the group. They easily could have shut it down. … Overall, just a grindy, gritty performance.”
The bullpen played a key role in this one. After starter Jeffrey Springs and reliever Justin Sterner combined to allow 10 runs in five innings, flipping what was an early 4-0 lead to a 10-4 deficit, the trio of José Suarez, Scott Barlow and Elvis Alvarado held the Angels to one run over the game’s final five frames.
Ultimately, this one came down to three key two-run blasts. Let’s take a look at each.
WILSON IN THE SEVENTH
The tide began turning when Jacob Wilson launched a two-run homer off left-hander Mitch Farris. His fourth homer of the season brought the A’s within four runs, providing some optimism that a comeback might be possible.
MUNCY IN THE EIGHTH
Max Muncy entered the game in the sixth as a pinch-hitter for Jeff McNeil and remained in the game at third base. Facing right-hander Chase Silseth in the eighth, Muncy pounced on a first-pitch hanging sweeper for a 426-foot two-run blast to center.
This is when everyone in the building began to feel a momentum shift.
“The Muncy homer was the big at-bat,” Kotsay said. “Any time you get a game within four, you’re one swing away. That momentum shift gave the guys the confidence that we could win this game.”
HEIM IN THE NINTH
Acting manager Darren Bush played the matchups by replacing Thomas with the switch-hitting Heim. After swinging through a sinker up in the zone for strike one earlier in the at-bat, Heim got a similarly placed sinker on the fourth pitch of the at-bat. This time, he didn’t miss.
“He’s done it before,” Muncy said of Heim. “He did it in Vegas and did it here. He’s built for moments like those, and we’ve already had a couple of opportunities to experience that.”
At the end of the day, this was just another example of why the A’s never feel like they’re out of a game with this high-powered offense. Their 21 comeback wins are fourth most in the Majors and the most in the American League. This one in particular was big in that it brought the A’s record back to .500 (38-38), now just a half-game back of the Mariners for first place in the AL West.
“No deficit is safe when our offense can do what it does,” Heim said. “It’s a good feeling. We’ve got a good group of guys here. We play with a lot of passion and we have a lot of fun out there. Even when it’s going bad, we’re still trying to have fun and keep it loose so we can rally back.”